craggy

you can do streaming music for free. I've played COH with Spotify running in the background. I also just sometimes have Media Player on.
I've got a keyboard that has a play/pause, stop and skip forward and back buttons on it, which work while the game is on, and it was cheap. I wouldn't be surprised if there was one that had a few more options on it for a bit more.

edit: I don't disagree with it as an idea, but think it'd be too much work for something not that many people would use, and there's already a way to listen to your own music, just not share it.

I agree with fleshing out the Arbiters a bit more, stick some more of them in missions. Sands is a fun character, I like him showing up, and maybe a few other unmasked Arbiters could be good for both hero and villain missions. Either that, or if they do change from using Arbiters as trainers, give us a bit more of some of the other Arachnos characters, who're not quite as well regarded as to be hanging out in Recluse's VIP Party Room.

edit: I wouldn't just get rid of the Arbiters in a patch with no story related to it though...give us an Arachnos Civil War, or at the very least some good reason for reallocation of forces...maybe an invasion of another country/dimension/time/planet

I like the idea of it, in a way, but can see how people wouldn't. I'm thinking now that my global might be a journalist, writing about the various adventures of the characters I play...and they get info passed to them by him, or they steal it from him, depending on faction. It'd be nice if he was allowed to keep recipes or enhancements for one of them to give to another sometimes...

I suck badly at ski slopes. There should be a tree decorating mini-game alternative for the less reactional and more creative types.

from further into the wiki article on Swamp Thing:

the first post is made of ironic win

Castle isn't the only one disheartened by the poor quality oil we've been getting in our arrows for some time now.

I suspect this might be part of the reason Statesman is invading Preatoria.

I'm not sure I'd like it to go fully MUA2-Fusion's style. For starters, I wasn't particularly taken with the implementation of the idea in that game, and the whole damn thing was based around it. In COH, where there's a heck of a lot more concerns I think the work involved would probably outweigh the end result.

I do like the concept of it though, and maybe there could be some way to have powers combining every now and then. I like Chyll's suggestion of a new power pool dealing with this. It'd be something I'd like to see if there was ever a level-cap increase (or even just added as an extra in an Issue) where we could pick from a few new sets that would all be designed to interact with each other.

Maybe a single extra power for each primary set, that is designed only to work in conjunction with others of it's kind. So you'd get something like "Combo Arrow", "Energy Combo" and "Fire Combo". The Arrow power would combine with Energy to create some kind of rapid fire energy bolts, or with Fire to drop a flaming rain of arrows. Energy and Fire could give a big ball of flaming plasma energy or something. It'd carry on for the rest...obviously there would be crossover, the majority of projectile weapons would end up interacting with the rest in mostly the same way I guess, and it would still take a lot of work, but maybe be a little easier to implement.

Stick those on a long recharge and every once in a while people could bust them out. Funny that now I think about that, it's very similar to the Fusion system from MUA2, aside from the long recharge.

Maybe just do it MUA1 style, where a target hit by 2 powers at the same time would suffer a little more damage and those doing the attack get a bit more xp.

Croc was mutated somehow in Hush, I think he's sometimes still shown that way (and sometimes he's just a big black guy with scary teeth).
Swamp Thing is Magic Origin. "Anatomy Lesson" 'Nuff said.

ah yeah, there is a few other drug user heroes (as opposed to drug-induced heroes, like Cap America, Cloak & Dagger, Ultimate Spider-man, Ultimate Hulk, etc) I just couldn't think of any. Patriot from Young Avengers used to be one, but got his blood transfusion and bullet-proof skin.

but just because a few specific toons can solo a TF, doesn't mean that everyone can. put the minimum numbers down to 1 and I'll then complain when my training enhancements only, team-oriented 2nd build, TA/Archery Defender can't solo anything for more than 3 minutes.

I still get sad when I'm trying to do normal arcs solo (usually on Villains, unsurprisingly) and the contact says "you better bring some friends!" or worse, I don't get much of a warning, then turn a corner and find an EB staring at me. I usually just shuffle that one off to the side until I've levelled a few times then go back for the cheap win.

I mostly agree there, but wouldn'y Bane be Technology, since he needs the venom injected into him regularly (using the device on his arm and back) as opposed to Captain America, who doesn't need to take the Super-soldier Serum again but maintains his powers?

It is tricky, since it's a drug, not quite the same as say Iron Man who's just a normal guy without the suit, so not quite as obviously tech, but the rest of your examples have been changed for good by their encounters with weird sciences. Is there an example of another chemically dependant SPB (preferably in the COH canon) that we could use as a precedent?
Only other I can think of right now that needs to continually top-up is Johhny Quick from the Earth 2 Crime Syndicate.

the other stuff might be nice, but Insps are the main area of importance here. with co-op being encouraged it seems silly that theres this huge obstacle in our way. don't think i've been on a co-op ITF or LGTF where there hasn't been a time someone's asked for something that someone from the other faction has had and been unable to give.

I've an Ill/Rad that I hardly ever play, might join you on. Take it we're starting at low levels?

anyway, see you in-game

but the X-Men are mutants through natural evolution. Beast is a bad example, because since he's messed with his genes so much over the years, he should technically be Science origin now. Same with the likes of Wolverine, he's a hybrid origin, with the claws being Science or Tech, in addition to his Natural or Mutation healing and senses.

I get what you're saying though. All in all, the specific Origins of characters are not that important to playing them in the game (fun to discuss though) so it wouldn't bother me if someone used either explaination for their toon's origin. A Magic robot character? Possible, might be a person's soul trapped in it, or brought to life Pinocchio style.

I'll be honest though, when I think of Mutants in-game, it's probably the origin that gives me the most vague mental image. I've a invul/super strength Tank who is Mutation because she was born that way from two differently powered individuals (I've not worked out what their origins are) which fits with the whole X-Men idea. I've also an Emp/Sonic Def whom I rationalise as Natural because he is simply a man with some inspiring words that can inspire people to keep on fighting and frighten his enemies.

to make a Mutation Origin booster pack though, I think it'd be better to ignore the possibility that pretty much any power-set and look would fit, and instead focus on those who are physically different from humans in some way. Otherwise I've no idea how they'd choose costume pieces. I personally don't have much need for a bunch of anthropomorphic animal costume pieces at the moment, but I think it would fit the theme well and be something that a lot of people have asked for.

Aeon is Steve Martin, Silos is Martin Short and Nemesis is Chevy Chase...purely speculation of course.

thing is, Mutation Origin is quite redundant as a choice. If it's something people are born as, then it's natural, if they're mutated by some outside force, chances are it's going to be something technological/scientific (which in themselves are sometimes interchangeable) or it's got to be something magical.